A great deal of research effort has been directed in recent years to understanding how mammalian cells develop in order to form complex structures (for example, tissue) from multi-cellular aggregations. Indeed, various high-throughput screening (HTS) robotic systems [1, 2] have been used to help identify potentially significant factors controlling how cell growth, motility, programmed cell death and epigenetics, for example, lead to the growth of such complex tissue structures. However, these latter HTS systems often rely on manual intervention in order to interpret datasets from a series of inputs. Such inputs can include, but are not limited to, optical images of cells obtained from microscopes or equivalent automated image capture instruments. Other inputs can also include 1) electrophysiological data from cells and 2) analysis of content of biological molecules which are present either on the surface of the cells, or contained within the cell. In many instances, the speed of resolution of these systems may not be appropriate for observation of relatively rapid temporal changes that may be of significance in the tissue growth and development process.
Such research also impacts upon the potential use of pluripotent stem cells for the generation and survival of such tissue structures [3, 4, 5], for example, for wound-healing or tissue replacement, therapy. However, whilst much research effort is being directed to the use of stem cells for tissue regeneration, the overall process that is necessary for successful tissue growth of tissue structures, such as whole skin epithelium, cartilage and organs, is still not well-understood. For example, inter-cellular interactions are complex, and it is thus experimentally difficult to determine optimal conditions for growing certain specific types of tissue. This is due to the large number of chemical and biological factors involved. In addition, there is an influence from variable environmental and physical conditions that might be present (such as temperature, pressure, humidity, O2/CO2 levels, light illumination levels etc. as well as the topography and surface properties of any cellular support matrices that may be present).
Accordingly, the present invention has been devised whilst bearing the above-mentioned drawbacks associated with conventional techniques in mind.